New Getty Search Gateway Allows Access to More Information More Quickly

August 11, 2011

LOS ANGELES—The Getty recently unveiled a newly expanded search function on its website that will allow scholars, researchers, and the interested public to better access the Getty's vast resources of information about the visual arts.

The Getty Search Gateway, which is now available online, provides streamlined searches through the Museum's collections and the Getty Research Institute's library catalog, digital collections, and collection inventories and finding aids.

"We're now able to provide greater access to more resources, and bring them together more quickly," said Jim Cuno, President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust. "The Getty Search Gateway will be an aid to scholars, educators, and researchers, but it's also friendly enough to be used by members of the general public who are eager to learn more about the visual arts."

Previously, researchers had to conduct searches separately through the Getty Research Institute's various catalogs and databases and the Museum's collection. The Getty Search Gateway conducts searches using a consolidated index returning an increased number of relevant results. The most frequently used resources are currently available through the Getty Search Gateway, and additional resources will continue to come online in the months ahead.

In addition to streamlining the search process, the Getty Search Gateway is able to make available information about many more objects from the Museum's collection. Now information about most of the Museum's collection is available online, along with an expanded set of images. Viewers can share or post the information they access through Getty Search Gateway.

"This is a great step forward in fulfilling the Getty's mission of disseminating knowledge about the visual arts, and in making our collections, archives, and databases more available worldwide," said Cuno.

The J. Paul Getty Trust is an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts that features the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Getty Research Institute. The J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty programs serve a varied audience from two locations: the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Malibu.

The J. Paul Getty Museum collects in seven distinct areas, including Greek and Roman antiquities, European paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts, and European and American photographs. The Museum's mission is to make the collection meaningful and attractive to a broad audience by presenting and interpreting the works of art through educational programs, special exhibitions, publications, conservation, and research.

The Getty Research Institute is an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It serves education in the broadest sense by increasing knowledge and understanding about art and its history through advanced research. The Research Institute provides intellectual leadership through its research, exhibition, and publication programs and provides service to a wide range of scholars worldwide through residencies, fellowships, online resources, and a Research Library. The Research Library - housed in the 201,000-square-foot Research Institute building designed by Richard Meier - is one of the largest art and architecture libraries in the world. The general library collections (secondary sources) include almost 900,000 volumes of books, periodicals, and auction catalogues encompassing the history of Western art and related fields in the humanities. The Research Library's special collections include rare books, artists' journals, sketchbooks, architectural drawings and models, photographs, and archival materials.